Boxed off! Eyesore payphone taken out

Council workmen remove the offending phone box.

Published:16:03Friday 05 May 2017

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South Shore businesses are celebrating after winning the battle of the phone box.

Residents and businesses have been campaigning to get rid of an eyesore public payphone which had been a magnet for vandals and drug dealers – even resorting to yarn bombing it to try to make it look better.

The yarn-bombing

But now with a bit of help from Blackpool Council, the offending box has been removed and a planning application from the owners to put a new phone on the site has been withdrawn.

Luca Vettese from the Notariannis ice cream parlour in Waterloo Road said he was delighted and thanked the hundreds of people who had posted objections to the planning application for a new box on the site.

He said: “We have been trying for ages to get something done about this box. Everyone in the area wanted it gone.

“We had local knitters yarn-bomb it to try to make it look better and highlight the problem but a council workman took the wool away.

We have been trying for ages to get something done about this box. Everyone in the area wanted it gone

“That got us publicity and when the owners New World Payphones put in a planning application to replace it people wrote in and objected.

“Now council workmen have taken it away and we are all delighted.

“The council have been brilliant on this one. They get a lot of stick but they intervened and talked to the owners about the problems and objections and they have with drawn the application.”

Susanne Johnson from the wool shop on Waterloo Road said: “The area looks better already. We are really pleased.”